Apple is finally giving gaming a serious home on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS with its new Games app, announced during WWDC 2025. Designed as a centralized hub for Apple’s gaming ecosystem, the app organizes all installed games, highlights Game Center achievements, and connects players with friends across devices. It’s the first time Apple has created a dedicated space for games, and it arrives amid a broader push to elevate gaming as a core feature of the Apple ecosystem.
The Games app isn’t just a launcher. It surfaces recent titles, offers personalized recommendations, and integrates Game Center stats like high scores, multiplayer invites, and leaderboards. Apple is also improving how cross-platform progress is handled, with iCloud syncing game saves and achievements between iPhone, iPad, and Mac, provided the game supports it. This change helps tackle a long-standing frustration among Apple users who switch between devices only to find progress hasn’t carried over.
In terms of interface, the new app borrows design cues from Apple’s TV and Music apps. Games are displayed with large visuals and quick access to trailers, gameplay videos, and store listings. The app also includes a curated section spotlighting new and upcoming titles, as well as Apple Arcade exclusives. For developers, this could mean increased exposure, especially for games that utilize Game Center and support cross-device play.
Apple has spent years treating gaming as an accessory rather than a centerpiece. Previous efforts like Game Center felt fragmented and underwhelming, often buried in system settings or app-specific menus. The new Games app effectively brings that functionality into one visible, consistent location.
A Long-Overdue Shift
Apple has spent years treating gaming as an accessory rather than a centerpiece. Previous efforts like Game Center felt fragmented and underwhelming, often buried in system settings or app-specific menus. Game Center launched back in 2010 and briefly appeared as a standalone app on macOS before disappearing after OS X El Capitan.
Before that, Apple experimented with Game Sprockets and InputSprocket in the ’90s and even classic Mac titles like Myst—Windows‑Mac dual releases—offered glimpses of gaming ambitions. The company also launched Boot Camp in 2006, letting Intel‑based Macs run Windows so users could play PC games natively.
More recently, Apple introduced Game Mode in macOS Sonoma, a Game Porting Toolkit for running Windows titles, and pushed AAA releases like Death Stranding, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and Resident Evil on Mac, though sales weren’t as good as Apple had hoped.
It’s encouraging to see Apple finally commit to gaming on Mac, but I can’t help but feel the focus is misplaced. Instead of bolstering infrastructure and addressing the glaring Mac‑Windows gap in game availability and performance, Apple is prioritizing social fluff: leaderboards, challenges, friend lists. All those features are fine, but they won’t matter if users can’t access the latest AAA titles or run games at competitive framerates.
Yes, Apple has historically made efforts, including Game Sprockets, Boot Camp, Game Porting Toolkit, but they’ve never tackled the core promise: parity with Windows gaming. Better graphics APIs (Metal), Proton-like translation tools, native game ports—these are all steps, but they’re still workarounds. Until Apple partners directly with major publishers or invests in high-performance gaming hardware, Mac remains a secondary platform for serious gamers.
This Games app feels like it’s polished socially, but underneath, it’s the same platform that lacks native support for the titles most players care about. If Apple truly wants to win over the gaming crowd, it needs to double down on performance, open the pipeline to major studios, and ensure game parity, not just build a prettier portal.